For more than a hundred years the four-hundred-ton barque 
Elissa worked the world's waters, first as a sailing 
ship and then as a motor vessel. Built in 1877 when steam 
vessels were beginning to overtake large sailing ships as prime 
cargo carriers, Elissa survived for more than a century 
on the strength of her hull and on the economic niche that 
ships of her size could fill.

Stripped of her three masts and her sails, heavily modified, 
and in line for the salvage yard, Elissa was discovered 
in the 1960s in Piraeus, Greece. Coincidentally, the Galveston 
Historical Foundation began looking for a ship to restore as a 
working example of the heyday of sail along the Texas coast.

In Sailing Ship Elissa, Patricia Bellis Bixel provides 
a complete history of the ship: her building and launching in 
Aberdeen, Scotland; her prime years of sailing under British, 
Norwegian, and Swedish flags; her decline as a Greek smuggler; 
and her eventual restoration as a tall ship for Texas. Included 
also is a view of the life of staff and crew on board the ship 
during a sailing season today.

Photographs by Jim Cruz and others wonderfully illustrate 
Elissa's history and bring to life the difficulties 
of restoration, the labors of her crew, and the grace and 
beauty of a sailing ship whether docked or underway.

Today, Elissa is an ambassador for Galveston and Texas 
whether moored at her home berth at the Texas Seaport Museum, 
making short training sails into the Gulf of Mexico, 
participating in parades of tall ships, or calling in 
Charleston, Annapolis, or New Orleans. With professional 
officers and a mostly volunteer crew, Elissa provides 
a means of understanding the life of a nineteenth-century 
sailor, a rigorous world in which conditions could be miserable 
but discipline, routine, and community had their own rewards.



PATRICIA BELLIS BIXEL has been an Elissa 
volunteer since 1983 and served as director of the 
Elissa from 1988 to 1990. She received her Ph.D. 
in history from Rice University in May, 1997, and is currently 
assistant editor of the Journal of Southern History. 
JIM CRUZ, a freelance professional photographer, has 
been a member of the Elissa's crew since 1989.